The New Creation (Part 1): Derek Prince Sermon (Transcript)

Full text of Derek Prince’s sermon titled ‘The New Creation (Part 1)’

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TRANSCRIPT:

Derek Prince – Bible Teacher

The theme of this teaching session is the new creation. This is one of the great themes of the New Testament, but it’s one that many Christians don’t fully understand and consequently they don’t appropriate all that God has made available to them.

ONLY TWO POSSIBILITIES (2 COR. 5:17–18 [GAL. 6:15])

So my purpose will be to teach you about the new creation in Christ. We’ll begin with 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, and the first part of verse 18.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself…’ and not read any further there.

Paul makes a very specific statement that applies to every person: if anyone is in Christ, the translation says he is a new creation, but the words ‘he is’ are supplied by the translators. The way Paul says it is more dramatic: if anyone is in Christ, a new creation! And you should have an exclamation mark there, it’s something exciting. If anyone is in Christ, a new creation!

And then he says a little further on: behold, that’s another word that introduces something exciting and dramatic. So this is an exciting statement. It’s not just dry theology. It’s an exciting and wonderful revelation of what God wants to do for each of us.

Now, Paul says, if anyone is in Christ, and that really leaves only two possibilities for every person: Either you are in Christ or you are not in Christ.

Now, if you are in Christ, then a new creation has taken place inside you. In Galatians, chapter 6 and verse 15, Paul returns to this theme and he says something very far reaching.

Galatians 6:15: “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” As I understand it, he’s saying the only thing that really matters in Christ is a new creation. Religious ceremonies won’t do it, whether you’re circumcised or not circumcised, baptized or not baptized; that’s not the important question.

The important question is, have you become a new creation in Jesus Christ? That’s the only thing that ultimately matters. It’s not important whether we’re Anglicans or Baptists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals. What matters is, are you a new creation? That’s the question. That’s the issue.

Creation is something that only God can do. Wherever we find the word create, if it’s properly used, it describes something that God has done. Man can manufacture, man can repair, man can improve, but only God can create. And the results of sin in our lives are such that it cannot be repaired, cannot be improved. There’s only one thing that will accomplish what’s needed: a creative act of God.

In Psalm 51:10, the great Psalm of Penitence, which David prayed after his sin had been revealed with Bathsheba, and it had been exposed that he was guilty both of adultery and murder. And he cries out to God in deep repentance and in agony of soul and he says, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God.’